Argos on ebay: eBay & Argos Sign Wider Multi-Year Partnership to Offer Nationwide Fulfilment Services to Buyers and Sellers

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eBay & Argos Sign Wider Multi-Year Partnership to Offer Nationwide Fulfilment Services to Buyers and Sellers

Oct 15, 2015

Announcements

Partnership spans Argos store Collection, Drop-off and Delivery
Services

Deal offers greater convenience & value for eBay buyers & sellers
–

eBay and Argos today announce that they have signed a wider multi-year partnership making it easier and
more convenient for both business and consumer sellers on eBay to offer unique fulfilment services. The partnership spans collection and drop-off at Argos stores and delivery within 48
hours.

Drop-off and delivery

Under the partnership, eBay will for the first time roll-out a national parcel drop-off service,
enabling eBay consumer sellers in the UK to drop-off their sold items at Argos stores nationwide. The service will commence with 150 stores before the end of 2015, with more stores to follow in the
coming year.

Under the new service, items packaged and dropped off in Argos stores by consumer sellers will be
despatched to eBay buyers. The drop-off and delivery service was successfully piloted earlier this year in ten Argos stores across four towns, and is both cheaper and more convenient* than
comparable services.

Click & Collect

Additionally, Argos and eBay have extended their ongoing commitment to their Click & Collect
programme, an exclusive partnership which began as a small pilot in late 2013. Since inception the parties have helped customers collect more than three million parcels, from
around 800 UK and Northern Ireland Argos stores, sold on behalf of 200,000 businesses selling on eBay.

Tanya Lawler, UK Vice President, eBay, said: “In 1995, eBay disrupted shopping by creating a commerce platform powered by customers. Our continued success is all about listening and
responding to customers’ needs – and we know that they expect ever more convenience, choice and value. Our ambition with this deal is to grow and establish some of the most exciting and innovative
fulfilment services in the UK. The eBay and Argos partnership further dissolves the lines between digital and traditional retail.”

David Robinson, Chief Operating Officer, Argos, said: “Argos invented click and collect in the UK, and recently added to its record of innovation by introducing FastTrack Collection and FastTrack
Delivery – market leading fulfilment services for the online shopper. The ability for customers to get their purchases quickly, easily and locally has become the new retail
battleground. With over 800 stores and a friendly face on every high street, we are ideally placed to attract eBay’s business and consumer customers to use our unique store
network. This deal reaffirms and builds on the successful and deepening relationship between our businesses.”

– Ends –

Notes to editors

* Based on the combination of service (delivery), price (cost to customer) & convenience (physical
locations) compared to competitor offerings in the UK

Argos is a leading UK
digital retailer, offering around 50,000 products through www. argos.co.uk , its growing mobile channels, stores and over the
telephone.

Argos continues to be the UK’s largest high street retailer online with around 121m customer
transactions a year through its stores and over 900 million website and app visits in the 12 months to February 2015. Customers can take advantage of Argos’ convenient Check & Reserve service
available through its network of 800 stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

In the financial year to February 2015, Argos sales were £4.1 billion and it employed some 29,000 people
across the business.

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) is the world’s most vibrant marketplace
for discovering great value and unique selection. eBay connects millions of buyers and sellers around the globe, empowering people and creating opportunity through Connected Commerce. Our vision
for commerce is one that is enabled by people, powered by technology and open to everyone. We focus on empowering our sellers, not competing with them, and we create stronger connections between
buyers and sellers with product experiences that are fast, mobile and secure. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’re just as passionate today about connecting buyers and sellers as when we
founded the company in 1995. For more information, visit ebayinc.com.

Ebay eyes more click-and-collect deals as it looks to humanise e-commerce

The partnership, announced today (September 24), will trial with 50 eBay merchants and allow shoppers to order goods online and pick them up from 150 Argos stores. Later this year, any of eBay’s 100 British retail partners that have click-and-collect capability will also be able to offer this service via eBay.

Tanya Lawler, eBay’s VP of UK trading, speaking to Marketing Week after an event to announce the deal in London today, said the partnership is aimed at making e-commerce more personal.

“We want to bring back the personal aspect of shopping. The great thing about high street stores is the person-to-person interaction. We are marrying the convenience of online shopping with the personal nature of in store. ”

Lawler said the deal highlights how the distinction between online and offline commerce is blurring. But while many commentators are doom and gloom about the state of the high street, she said eBay wants physical shops to succeed. The firm has taken a number of previous steps to drive up in-store footfall, including bringing its online payment service, PayPal, to physical locations.

Click-and-collect is increasingly popular, with an Econsultancy online shopping survey finding that 40 per cent of shoppers used it over Christmas last year. This means a number of online players are looking into ways to improve fulfilment, with both Amazon and Google trialling their own services.

Currently, the vast majority of retailers without a high street presence have to use couriers. But John Walden, managing director at Argos, speaking at the launch, said this makes fulfilment a subsidised cost, which is why firms are testing new ideas such as independent networks and lockers where people can pick up goods.

He said: “There is a uniform belief that fulfilment must be more local and more personal. Competition is moving towards the basis of fulfilment, getting products to customers faster and cheaper.”

The deal is part of wider moves by eBay to improve perception of its customer service and the brand. Many still see it as a place to auction off unwanted goods, but Lawler highlighted that “a lot” of what is bought on eBay is new.

This involves the addition of new services such as click-and-collect, as well as expanding current offerings. The firm is now bringing its one-hour delivery service, eBay Now, to London some time next year. Plus is stepping up its communications with customers, both on the site and in wider marketing, to talk about features such as its 14-day return guarantee.

“We want to change the view of eBay and shift perception of our service. We are changing rapidly, but we need to talk to customers and clearly communicate this,” according to Lawler.

Ebay is also set to redesign its UK website before the end of the year.